Sunday, March 14, 2010

Me timeAfter doing a few jobs before lunch on Saturday, I decided on a bit of me time in the afternoon. Continuing on from last weekend I will be concentrating on Bodalla for a while. The main reason for this is the large amount of complaints I'm getting from passengers regarding the state of the platform.They complain about "there's no seats to sit on", 'no garden to look at", 'the station building is here one day and gone the next". So to shut the wingers up I will finish Bodalla platform.I was working on the lift out section of cliff stapling the chicken wire onto the former, and wouldn't you know it my $5 staple gun fired its last staple. Dropping it onto the floor also didn't help. Like all things in this throw away society it ended up in the bin and a promise to get another one on Sunday.Unable to complete the scenery, I went to the list of things to complete on the layout before I die, and Item 765 was a signal box for Bodalla. Into the box of 284 things I need to construct I found a kit for a fibro (call it asbestos if you want) signal box. It was a Hawksmoor kit my first one to put together. I was a bit hesitant working with asbestos however the instructions told me it was a resin kit so I commenced its construction. By 9.0pm I had the walls, base and roof together waiting for Sunday for more work to be done on it. I can recommend the kit, it is well thought out and the parts go together well and fills in the hole of NSWGR infrastructure.After rolling out of the cot around 9.0am (my weekend present to myself) it was off to the shops for groceries, back to read the Sunday paper, lunch, Landline, Gardening Australia, then back to me time.I felt a bit guilty returning to the shed, after all there was a cupboard waiting repainting. But the draw of the signal box was stronger. I grey primed it and after it had dried, I commenced to paint it. Using the coloured picture from Branchline Modeller 3, I started with the base and then the sides and lastly with the roof. The finish is certainly not a pristine new finish but hopefully a reasonable weathered one. Also discovered a bit left over in the bag and when I read the instructions found out that I had forgotten to put the floor in. Oh well I'll have to employ taller signalmen. By next weekend I hope to get the glazing in and the handrails as well. Sitting beside the track now it looks OK.I also bought another staple gun to complete the scenery work. The staple gun had now increased in price to $8. I had to convince the guy in the hardware shop that I wasn't running an upholstery shop and that I didn't need one of his $44 staple guns. The last one held out for about four years and I hope this one will as well.I also must admit I like keeping an eye on all the other blogs to follow the progress of other modellers. I always head for Craigs Shed first as his blog list shows when either the blogs have been updated or thats when he must visit them. I'm glad his DCC is working out Ok for him.Well maybe next blog I will have a photo of the finished signal box.